Who doesn’t love chocolates? With the popularity of the chocolate industry, there is also high demand for cacao beans. Cacao is an economically important crop due to strong domestic and export market demand. But cacao production in the Philippines is constrained by low production due to low yielding varieties, pests and diseases, and fewer area for cacao production.
With funding from the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD), the University of Southern Mindanao (USM) implemented a project to validate cacao varieties with high yield and disease-resistant molecular markers that can serve as genetic stocks or mother plants in the nursery.
The identified cacao seedlings are then verified by the Bureau of Plant Industry – National Seed Quality Control Services (BPI-NSCQS). Verified cacao seedlings are tagged with QR codes that can be scanned. Once scanned, information on variety, nursery owner, location, and date certified will be shown. There is no need to use simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers to guarantee that farmers use the correct high yielding varieties for increased cacao production and income.
The program team distributed around 1,200 cacao seedlings of UF18 and BR25 to 25 willing cacao nursery operators in regions 11 and 12 that were molecularly verified and certified by the BPI-NSCQS.
This can boost the Philippine’s cacao industry by ensuring and promoting the propagation, utilization, and production of high yielding varieties of cacao.